Once Upon A Time In The West

The film explores the complexity of determining a painting’s authenticity. Created with a Leica microscopic camera it examines the surface of the painting. A voiceover describes the collector Oliver B. James and his way of acquiring art. Once Upon A Time In The West examines the ambiguous and speculative valuation of artworks and questions the emotional value of an artwork. After determining Fredric Remington’s painting The Parley as fake the painting’s value was reduced to one-tenth of its original amount - will the story of the painting, and perhaps even the fact that it is now part of a SUPERFLEX project, make it regain its lost worth?

Once Upon a Time in the West was first presented as part of the solo exhibition Superfake/The Parley at ASU in 2016.